C# application GUI breaking on different Windows icon/text size settings

Question

http://i.imgur.com/OXfC7.png

I have a c# form application that has a fixed size (cannot be resized) and cannot be maximized. Users who have a different setting for their icon/text sizes breaks my GUI (the entire form is bigger, background images start tiling, etc.

Help?

Answer 1

Well, sounds like you should allow it to be resized...

Quite frankly, even MS has gotten the hint and started changing most of their forms and even dialogs to be resizable. It's the friendly thing to do.

UPDATE:

A couple things come to mind on how to fix this. First, set the background image to Stretch. For the button, instead of using an image to display the text, just use a background image that has some transparency and use a regular font.

Answer 2

You should be a little more description of what you want. Since I'm not sure what you want to actually happen, you can prevent the form elements from resizing by changing your forms property AutoScaleMode to None.

Answer 3

Microsoft recommends that a user change their DPI (dots per inch) settings and keep their native resolution rather than change the resolution to enlarge the visible display. This article also links to guides for building DPI aware applications.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371771(VS.85).aspx

You should allow your forms and controls to scale, the user would most probably have changed their DPI settings for a reason. This reason is most probably related to accessibility and, as developers, we should strive to adhere to user interface and accessibility standards.

This usually increases the amount of work to create assets for web sites and applications. Also, thought should be put into the positioning of controls to ensure that they will not overlap or fall off the edge of the form when scaled. The best way to ensure that your application is compliant is to test at both ends of the spectrum and the normal recommended settings for usage.

As for disabling maximising of the form, this should only be done if you can ensure that the form will fit on the smallest of displays without issue. I have used applications on a netbook with a 7" screen that cannot be maximised, and they just don't fit, there is limited space to move the form around to access certain controls. If these could be maximised, I would then expect all controls to be visible, or can be able to scroll to reach them.

It is a challenge to develop a solution for all, but your end users will appreciate the work you have put in, if your application works correctly. Accessibility is a sensitive area and we should be making the effort to provide interfaces to cater for all users.